The deafening silence was not to last as a beam of sunlight moved up the youngest alicorn's face: The brother. As the sun rose outside his window the beam of light peeked through his shades, making it's way to his eyes. Upon reaching it's target it stopped, as if to say "Wake up now. It's time to wake up." Then suddenly the beams increased in intensity, shining at full force upon the poor stallion's eyes.
"Urgh. Shurgen furgen?" he mumbled, his eyes lazily opening. he began to slowly get out of his bed before an ecstatic moon princess bust through his door, en-route to jumping on his bed. "Again?" he managed to say before she slammed down on the base of his bed, launching it's contents towards the ceiling.
"Wake up sleepy head!" Luna giggled as he groaned in frustration.
"What time is it?" he grunted, lightly shoving his sister off of his bed. He glanced over at his new clock that he made. "Crack of dawn huh?" he asked her. She smiled sheepishly. "Eh don't worry, I don't sleep in late anyways." he said getting out of bed. She got up as well and tried to follow him down the hall. "Whoa, you should go to your room and get some rest." he told her.
"I'll be fine." she replied, trotting towards him.
"No, I'm serious. You were up all night." he told her again.
"And I'm serious too. I'm fine!" she replied once again. However to her argument's demise she yawned and her eyes went half-lidded.
"Ahah!" he pointed at her. "Now off to bed."
"I'm older than you."
"I'm stronger."
'Wanna bet on that?" she said, a sly smile on her face.
"It's no fair! You can smash a giant rock into the planet!" he complained, making her giggle. "Then again.. Hmm.." he quickly turned back towards his room, deep in thought. Luna curiously followed.
Inside she saw him at his design table, sketching some very crude drawings of some kind of metal suit. "You aren't very good at drawing." she commented, yawning again. However instead of replying he dropped his pencil and picked it up again in his magic. But instead of getting better his drawing grew worse, so he switched back to his hooves.
A good five minutes later he was done, and Luna was sleeping on his bed. As he rolled up his paper he debated waking her up. "Nah, that'd be cruel." he told himself, opening and closing the door carefully before running down the long hallway towards the guards mess hall to show the captain his designs.
(*)
"Ah, Steampunk!" the captain said as the alicorn walked in.
"Hello Captain Shield." Steampunk replied, walking over to shake his hoof. His grey coat reflecting some of the light from the lamps on the ceiling. His cutie mark of a sword and a helmet the only thing that stayed dull. Even his almost black mane reflected light.
"You're a Prince! I know you made me do away with the formalities but can you do away with yours? You are my superior." the captain replied.
"The only way I'll ever see myself as your superior is if I go through the guard captain training and do better than you."
"Fine, have it your way. What'cha got there?" he asked, pointing at the paper Steampunk was holding with his magic.
"I think you're gonna like this." he grinned, unraveling the scroll. He laid it on a nearby table and pointed at the main bit. The suit itself. "This here is a power suit. It will enhance the wearers strength, endurance and durability." he explained.
"How does it work?" the captain asked, interested. The majority of the times Prince Steampunk came up with something it came out perfectly after a few tries. In fact a lot of the technological advances of Equestria were his doings. From generators to coffee machines he designed and built the first prototypes.
"Well, first is the mask. It is just a couple of sheets of thin armor, with a thick gel substance in between as well as a magic infused visor. This will stop projectiles from hitting the user's face. Inside however, is a pair of goggles that at the press of a button will magically zoom to any distance, allowing the wearer to be able to watch enemies from any distance. There is also a microphone and earpiece on one side so you can hear your commander or anypony on the other side of the link." Steampunk explained, pointing at the sketch of the helmet.
"Next is the gauntlets, these will be the weapons. Depending on which hoof the wearer uses mostly for picking things up the left or right gauntlet will be made of very thick metal sheets, so it will not be damaged easily. At the front will be a small energy cannon or musket-like gun, depending on which race the user is. For the cannon the gauntlet will have a larger moving piece placed over the main bit. This is what the weapon attaches to. When fired it will create a lot of kickback so when it fires it will slam backwards towards the joint via the moving gun holster. The cannon itself will be power via magic crystals which can hold a large amount of magical charge. These coupled with the unicorn's own magic will create quite the weapon. But for the musket-like weapon it will be like a bracelet going around the hoof. The firing mechanism will be at the top, and the barrel will rotate around after each shot, auto-loading a new round. This will also feature the slam-back recoil reducer however it will be much smaller. As well when all of the rounds have been fired the user will move it back to the joint of the hoof and leg, where there will be a ammo rack of sorts to load a new set of rounds into the gun. This will be fired by a trigger inside the gauntlet." Steampunk continued, pointing to each various piece of equipment.
"Interesting." the captain commented.
"The rest is written on the sheet. I have a feeling Celestia will be looking for me." he said, handing the drawings to the captain, pointing at the scribbles on the back. And as if on cue the doors were opened and Princess Celestia walked in.
"Ah Steampunk, there you are. I was looking for you." she said.
Steampunk leaned over to the captain. "Told you." he said, handing the sheet to him and walking towards the door. In front of the doors he stopped and raised his right hoof in salute, the captain did the same. Then the prince turned around and walked out the door.
"So Celestia, whats on the menu today?" he asked.
"Eggs." she said flatly.
"Killjoy." he muttered.
"What was that?" she questioned, leaning in.
"Lighten up, it's not like Canterlot is gonna walk away. Live a little." Steampunk replied. Celestia stopped and took a deep breath.
"I know the speech." he said, stopping her before she began. "I blah blah blah, can't blah blah blah, have blah, fun. Blah blah kingdom."
"Steampunk." Celestia warned, an edge in her voice. He was normally an ass like this but it wasn't his fault. He had developed a strong bond with their parents and when they passed away he replaced them with a sense of crude humor. He was dry and cynical at times, others he was sarcastic and snide. Very rarely was he in a perfectly good mood.
Steampunk stopped. "I don't like that you think you are my mother. First of all I am only what? Three four hundred years younger than you? And I am not only mature enough to be on my own I am also strong enough. However you are always on my back about the things I do, why I do them, HOW I do them. So for once in a while can you LAY OFF!" he ended his sentence with a shout, surprising Celestia. He never lost his temper with her many times. The only times he had really yelled at her were when their parents died and when she had lost her own temper at him after he had been working with dangerous chemicals. It was those times that he really scared her, even though she didn't admit it. Her mind was suddenly barraged with quick flashes of him after they found their parents murdered.
"Steampunk I'm sorry." was all Celestia could say to her brother. He was completely devastated after finding their parents murdered in their own bed. However after she said that all his fear, sadness and despair turned to anger.
"HOW CAN YOU BE SORRY? SORRY DOESN'T BRING BACK THE DEAD! SORRY IS FOR FORGIVENESS NOT FOR PAIN, NOT FOR ANGER FOR FORGIVENESS! YOU THINK SORRY WILL CUT IT? HUH? WELL YOU CAN TAKE SORRY AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR FAT ASS!" he yelled at her, leaving her completely shocked.
"STEAMPUNK!" Luna yelled back, getting right in his face. "What is wrong with you? Why take your anger out on her? She didn't do anything!" she spoke harshly, lowering her voice. Steampunk followed suit.
"Exactly. Nothing. You did nothing. Whose decision was it to give the guards a break? Whose decision was it to leave mom and dad UN-BUCKING GUARDED!" his voice was nothing like it normally was. It was as if his vocal chords had been replaced with something out of a horror book. It was very low and extremely electronic sounding. It looked like he was about to completely snap and rampage on until he turned around to the wall and began kicking it again and again.
With a particularly strong buck the chunk of wall exploded off of the rest of the castle and was sent flying out and away from the city, before falling down the cliff. The silence was deafening until Steampunk fainted, smacking his head off of the ground with a loud crack.